Closure for bottles, jars, and other receptacles.



A. & H. INGRAM. CLOSURE FOR BOTTLES,.IARS, AND OTHER RECEPTACLES.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 6.1916.

Patented J im. 28, 1919.

iev

ALFRED INGRAM AND HARRY INGRAM, 0F

BROOKLYN, NEW Yom;

CLD-SUBE FOB BOTTLES, JARS, AND OTHER RECEPTACLES.

specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. es, 1919.

Application led September 6, 1916. Serial No. 118,611.

To all whom it may concern;

Be it known that we, ALFRED INGRAM and HARRY INGRAM, citizens of theUnited States, and residents of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings andState of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inClosures for Bottles, Jars, and other Receptacles, of which thefollowing is a specification.

The invention pertains more particularly to crown caps and to meanscarried thereby for permitting the convenient removal of the cap from abottle. As is well known, crown caps have a top or crown portion, adepending skirt portion to be crimped over a shoulder on the outside ofthe neck of the bottle and a cork or other sealing disk located withinthe crown portion to engage the upper edges of the bottle. Usually thesecrown caps are removed from bottles by independent appliances commonlycalled cap lifters. The disadvantages of independent cap lifters forremoving the caps have been recognized and various attempts have beenmade to remedy the same and some of these have involved the connectionof devices with the cap, for removing it from a bottle, but these means,so far as we are informed, have been vitally defective in at least twoimportant particulars, one being struction and application to orconnection with theaps/havefgenerally renderedrit impossible to handlethe caps in the hoppers of commercial capping machines, and the otherbeing the greatly increased expense attending the production of the capcaused by the devices referred to, some of which have been integral withthe caps and thus very greatly increased the expense of producing thecap due to the great waste of metal in cutting the cap and its appendagein a single piece from sheet metal.

The purpose of our invention is to provide a crown cap with 'simpler andinexpensive means conveniently applied .thereto for permitting theremoval of the capfrom a bottle said means preferably consisting of aring or band adapted to embrace or extend varound .the edges of thecrown of the cap and made from a strip whose ends are inserted through ahole in the upper side edge of the cap and bent laterally so as to liebetween the sealing disk and the inner side surface of the cap. The ringor band is that their con-V Vtion with the cap preferably made from aflat strip of metal, and, when in normal position on the cap, will bedisposed on edge, or in other words stand vertically close against andembrace the upper side portions of the cap. When it is desired to removethe cap from a bottlell the ring or band will be turned upwardly at itsfree edge in position to receive any convenient device, such as a knifehandle, lead pencil, or the like, whereby through a pull on said ring orband the cap may be detached from the bottle.

The cap and removing ring or band em-v bracing our invention may be asconveniently handled in hoppers of commercial capping machines as theordinary crown caps possessing no means and in addition the means weprovide for detaching the cap adds very slightly to the expense ofmanufacturing the cap and in no way interferes with the proper sealingof the bottle.

Our invention further affords certain specific advantages in that thering or band may be made of very thin metal and present a flat surfaceto the device which may be inserted through it when a cap is to beremoved, and further, when the ring or band is turned upwardly and forceapplied for,

detaching the cap, the strain on the metal of the ring or band at thepoint of itsconne'cis in line with the vertical diameter of the metal,this diameter and the direction of the strain on the metal serving topermit the successful use of a very thin band or ring as a cap liftingattachment.v

The invention will be fully understood from the detaileddescriptionhereinafter presented, reference being had to theaccompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a top view, partly broken away and partly in section, of acap ernbodying our invention` the 'lifter applied thereto being shownclosed down around the crown of the cap in normal inoperative position;

Fig. 2 is a bottom view, with the sealing disk partly broken away` ofthe same;

Fig. 3 is a central vertical section through the neck portion of abottle having the cap of our invention applied thereto, and

Fig. 4 is a like View of the same with the lifter ring or bandfshown asturned upfor their removal,

ing

wardly preparatory to being used fordetachin the cap from the bottle.

In t e drawings, 10 indicates the n eck portion' of a bottle of usualconstructlon, 11 an annular roove in the exterior of the upper endportion of said neck, 12 the contents of the bottle, and 13 a capapplied upon the mouth of the bottle and comprising a top or crownportion 14, a corrugated skirt ortion 15 adapted to be crimped into thea oresaid groove, as usual, a side portion 16 intermediate the top 14and skirt 15, and an inner disk 17 of cork or other sealing medium, asusual; and the cap 13 apart from the features of our invention is ofcustomary form and construction and adapted to be applied to the mouthsof bottles in the usual manner, the sealing zone which we will number 18being annular and disposed inwardly from the side 16 surrounding the topof the cap.

Our invention resides more particularly in special means provided by usfor enabling the removal of the cap from the bottle without theemployment of an independent cap' lifter, many types of which are wellknown. In accordance with our invention we do not modify theconstruction of the cap 13 further than' to form at one point in theside 16 thereof a vertical slit or opening 19, and in carrying out ourinvention we equip the cap with a ring loop or band 20 preferably formedfrom a Iiat strip of steel or l other metal having its ends insertedthrough the opening 19 and then bent laterally in opposite directions,as at 21, 22, said ends being against the inner surface of' the side 16and between said surface and the outer vertical edge of the sealing disk17, and thus being outwardly beyond-the sealing zone of the cap andabove the' inwardly crimped skirt portion 15 of said cap. Initially thering or band 20 and its laterally bent ends 21, 22 are vertical, withthe body of the ring or band 20 iclosely encompassing the side 16 of thecap directly below the top 14, as shown in Fig. 3, wherein it may beseen that the ring or band 20 and its -ends 22 are all on verticalplanes or arranged on edge, the longer diameter of the material of thering or band and its parts bein vertical. The ring or band 20 bybeormedfrom a strip of thin Hat metal and disposed with relation to thecap in the manner indicated, that is below the top 14 and above thecrimped skirt portion 15, occupies very little space and its dispositionis such that the cap may be conveniently handled in the hoppers ofordinary .commercial cappin machines, without which characteristic t ecap as a whole would bev rendered impracticable for general commercialuse. The ring or band 20 is inexpensive to manufacture and obviously itmay be applied to the cap with great conven- '21, 22 by being exteriorto the sealing zone the free edge of the ring at the side of the capopposite to the opening 19. The arms 18 and between the edge of the disk17 and the adjacent inner side surface of the cap, do not interferewiththe sealing of the bottle and, in addition, arel protected. againstcontact with the contents of the bottle.

When it is desired to remove the cap from or open a bottle, the freeedge of the ring or band 20 will be turned upwardly or to about theposition shown in Fig. 4, and thereupon a knife handle, lead pencil orother convenient instrument may be inserted through the ring 0r band 20and used as a handle for pulling upwardly on said ring or band in adirection to detach the cap from the bottle. We have found that by a,proper application ofthe foreinger in the ring or band 20 and the thumbto the bottle, thelinger may be employed for pulling on the band 20 andthereby detaching the cap from the bottle, but ordinarily it will befound more convenient and possibly more agreeable to insert a leadpencil or other device through the ring 0r loop 20 to serve as a handlefor detaching` the cap. When the ring, loop or band 20 is turnedupwardlyand a pull is exerted thereon for detaching the cap, the strainof the pulling force is against the vertical diameter of those portionsof the ring or band adjacent to the opening 19, as shown in Fig. 4, andthis detail of the structure is important in' that it permits the use ofvery thin metal in the ring or band without im- -p'airing-theieciency`ofthe A,same asma cap f remover or lifter. The ends of thelianlidftt`m arecontiguous to each other, and this is another detail of the structurewhich is important, in that thereby when the band is in use, the pull isat substantially a single point at one edge of the cap and that the capmay be detached from the bottle with limited strain on the hand of theperson detaching the same. The manufacture ofA the ring or band 2O froma strip of flat metal results in the band presenting a flat surface notonly to the side of the cap, but

also to the finger .or to such instrument as may be inserted through thesame to be used in applying the force for detaching the cap. We regardthe use of a substantially flat strip in making the ring orband 20 ashighly important, but we do notdesire to limit our invention in everyinstance to the employment of a Hat ribbon or strip for the maufacture0f the ring or band 2,0. im

Mtl

mit

'to secure by What we claim as our invention and desire Letters Patent,is: l

A closure for bottles and other receptacles comprisin a, cap containinga sealing medium andghaving a. depending side portion,

- and means carried by the cap for detaching the same, said means beinga, band closely encircling the upper side portion of the cap and free atone side to be turned upwardly and alford an open loo and at the otherside at a given pointvbelngfastened to said cup, so that an upward pullon the loop will be directed at a, predetermined point against one edgeonly of the cap.

Signed at New York in the county of 15 New York and State of New Yorkthis 5th dayof September, A. D. 1916.

, ALFRED INGRAM.

HARRY INGRAM.

